Written by: site admin
Thursday, June 23, 2011 

11^th Circuit Judge William H. Pryor Jr. had some fun with a recent opinion resolving a dispute between the members of the girl group Expose (remember “Point of No Return” and “Seasons Change”?) and Ismael Garcia, who claims he helped create the group in 1984.

Joined by Senior 11^th Circuit Judge Emmett Ripley Cox and U.S. District Court Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. of Atlanta, Pryor ruled for the current members of the band in their trademark dispute with Garcia’s companies over the rights to the Exposé name. Pryor said the evidence showed that, while other women performed under the name in the mid-1980s before the group had commercial success, the three current members of the band are those the public has associated with the Exposé name since 1986.

Miami attorney Dorothy F. Easley, who won the appeal for current members of the group, said the decision was a good one for performers and artists. As suggested by Pryor’s opinion, Easley said the 11^th Circuit hadn’t encountered a similar trademark issue before but the court’s opinion was consistent with those of other federal courts who have.

Garcia’s lawyer, Howard N. Kahn of Dania, Fla., was out of the country and couldn’t be reached for comment.

Throughout the opinion, Pryor takes every opportunity to use titles of the group’s hits to tell the story of the case. (Example: “[T]he opposing parties request this Court to ‘Let Me Be the One’ who obtains rights to the Exposé mark.”)

The opinion doesn’t say whether Pryor’s chambers took its inspiration from copies of Exposé albums owned by the judge or one of his law clerks—or downloaded the recordings off the Internet.  A 26-year-old law clerk fresh out of school would have been a toddler when the group released its debut triple-platinum album in 1986; the judge was in his mid-20s.

Source: Daily Report    

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Tags: Judge William H. Pryor Jr. , Expose , Point of No Return , Seasons Change , Ismael Garcia , Judge Emmett Ripley Cox , Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. , Attorney Dorothy F. Easley , Appeal , Trademark , Howard N. Kahn

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